Zimbabwe International defender Jordan Zemura is set to miss his fourth consecutive match for England’s Bournemouth as he remains sidelined, recovering from Covid-19.
The Cherries face Liverpool at Anfield stadium on Saturday in the 22-year-old’s absence.
Zemura missed the Cherries’ league defeats at the hands of defending Champions Manchester City and the resurgent Arsenal after testing positive for the virus a fortnight ago.
On Tuesday, he also missed their morale-boosting win over Norwich in the Carabao Cup.
Zemura, along with Joe Rothwell, Ryan Fredericks and Junior Stanislas, will remain behind for the trip to Liverpool owing to different ailments.
Giving his squad’s update, Cherries coach Scott Parker said: “They still won’t make the weekend. They are still behind in that sense. They are getting very close, Ryan is probably the closest, so, hopefully, he’s not too far away.”
They were, however, boosted by the return of striker Dominic Solanke to training after full recovery.
Another striker Jamal Lowe who missed the Carabao Cup tie at Norwich due to illness, returned to training with the squad.
Solanke and Lowe might be available for selection when they take on Liverpool, who have been blowing hot and cold since the season started, with two points on their tally from the first three matches.
The trip to Anfield concludes off a tricky trio of fixtures with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. They lost two and will hope to salvage themselves against Liverpool.
Going into this one against the Reds, Parker builds on the buoyant mood in his camp following the mid-week win over Norwich.
He said: “It helps, of course, it does; it was a positive result. After Arsenal, I was very critical of the side regarding our first-half performance and how we turned out. I was unhappy with that.
“The big positive coming out of Norwich was that it was probably the polar opposite.
“It was different in terms of whom we were facing, but they’re still a very good side, and what we did show, we showed in abundance.
“My message during the week in terms of what we need to be, we certainly showed that against Norwich.
“As well as the performance, which was good, the general messaging around where I was disappointed with us against Arsenal, we put that right.”
